Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Fox leads for trust

Americans do not trust the major tv news operations in the country- except for Fox News.

Our newest survey looking at perceptions of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News finds Fox as the only one that more people say they trust than distrust. 49% say they trust it to 37% who do not.

CNN does next best at a 39/41 spread, followed by NBC at 35/44, CBS at 32/46, and ABC at 31/46.

Predictably there is a lot of political polarization in which outlets people trust. 74% of Republicans trust Fox News, but no more than 23% trust any of the other four sources. We already knew that conservatives don't trust the mainstream media but this data is a good prism into just how deep that distrust runs.

For Democrats the numbers are a complete opposite- a majority trust all of ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC while only 30% have faith in Fox News. Continuing the trend in our polling over the last few months that independents hate everything, a plurality of them distrust all five outlets we looked at.

NBC is the most popular choice among Democrats at a 62/17 spread. Although 'NBC News' was the entity named in the question it's possible respondents could have been lumping MSNBC in with it given the good numbers on the left. At a 17/69 spread CBS was the least popular with Republicans, perhaps indicating residual unhappiness from the Dan Rather days. CNN finished second among Democrats, Republicans, and independents suggesting that it may be the least polarizing of the major tv news operations.

These numbers suggest quite a shift in what Americans want from their news. A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality. It says a lot about where journalism is headed.

Read the full report and the title of this paper should be "Older White America will only trust Fox." Look at the cross-tabs and you will see a dramatic pattern between age and race for each of the networks. Also, the sample over represents whites and those whoa re 45 and over. Acording to 2008 census estimates, whites account for 66% of the population, but 74% of this sample. Ages 45 and over account for 52% of the voting age population, but 63% of this sample.

I'd like to say I'm surprised by this, but looking at the news being offered by FOX, CNN, MSNBC and the three networks I'm not.

We live in a center-right country. FOX News (not its rightwing primetime talk, but its daytime news), is center right. MSNBC (not its leftwing primetime talk, but its daytime news) and the others are center-left.

Of all the networks, FOX comes across most as distrusting big government and basically liking the country and respecting its people. I'm not saying the others don't actually like the country and its people, but that's just not how they come across in their broadcasts. It's like they are journalists first and Americans second. Not so with FOX.

Of all the networks, FOX most resembles the tone and orientation of the traditional news broadcasts of the 50's and 60's -- back when people actually trusted the news.

With any luck, print and broadcast media outlets will take note... at least some of them. We need more diversity in the news, and FOX can't do it all alone.

You're forgetting that a survey of news watchers is going to relate to demographics of news watchers and not demos of non news watchers. Comparisons to the census are irrelevant because not everyone actually watches news. The survey is closer to accurate than you assume and may actually underrepresent older and white viewers. Among news watchers, FoxNews is easily the most trusted brand. Nice try though.

"A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality."

Lack of neutrality? According to whom? You?

I looked at your poll to see if you actually asked this question: "Do you trust this station because of its neutrality or lack of neutrality" or "Do you trust this station because they tell you what you want to hear" - but you didn't.

Study after study by media research groups show that Fox News is the most neutral news outlet. The American people are not as partisan nor as stupid as you think they are.

This makes sense because Fox goes out of its way to describe itself as "fair and balanced," and regularly criticizes other news channels and points out possible bias on other channels. It's a great marketing strategy. And it apparently fools viewers into thinking Fox is actually fair.

If CNN, ABC, NBC, or CBS devoted much air time to showing the hypocrisy, falsehoods, and lies-by-omission on Fox, these poll numbers would change.

It’s an indictment of your objectively – or lack thereof – to backhandedly remark “Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality.” This demonstrates a smug arrogance on your part and calls into question you skills as an intellectual analyst.

As a political science professor, the elite liberal media serves as the offensive team of the left, while the democrats serve as the defensive team of the left. It starts with the lead they all receive from the N.Y. Times, then every major newspaper in the country leans left, NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, PBS, & every cable outlet(with the exception of FOX). Like a rigged game...vote democrat!

The poll did not ask reasons for the trust extended to each network, and I suspect a large number of those trusting Fox News believe the network to be neutral. It is at least neutral enough in the news division to avoid rank and unfounded speculation at the motives of others.

The comment about Fox News lacking nuetrality is not correct. They present both sides of an issue and trust the viewers to draw a conclusion. Some of the other networks present one side of an argument and try an persuade you it is the correct view. That is not news - just one side of a debate.

Everyone will draw thier own conclusion from the data - but if people are being honest, what it says is people tend to trust the network that most reflects thier bias (the real news is hte spread between republican/democrat, old/young et.c it dwarfes the marginal statistical different between the networks themselves).

This doesn't bode well for bridging the abusrd, pathetic partisanship that has taken over rhetoric in this country and increasingly hampers serious governing. But it should give hope to all those bloggers in pajamas that thier undifferntiated, uninformed, editorial posing as analysis will be increasingly lauded as great work (well at least by a select half of the population).

The majority of Americans believe in creation over evolution. But belief is no substitute for knowledge. A Pew Research poll was done a year after the second Iraq War began and a question was asked, "Was Saddam Hussein responsible for 9/11." If you got your news from PBS only 10% responded yes. If you got your news from Fox, 67% said yes. Again, it is not what you believe. It is what is true that matters.

The PPP analysis of the results is hilariously liberal spin and, predictably, insults the inteligence of the American public:

"These numbers suggest quite a shift in what Americans want from their news. A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality. It says a lot about where journalism is headed."

It declares Walter "neutral" when anyone who paid any attention to his post CBS days knows he was a far lefty. It assumes "lack of neutrality" by Fox, directly contrary to the poll results, and effectively asserts that Americans are too stupid to recognize a lack of neutrality at Fox.

Annon at 4:50 p.m. has much of it right, but it also is a fact that Fox provides accurate news:

"Of all the networks, FOX comes across most as distrusting big government and basically liking the country and respecting its people. I'm not saying the others don't actually like the country and its people, but that's just not how they come across in their broadcasts. It's like they are journalists first and Americans second. Not so with FOX.

Of all the networks, FOX most resembles the tone and orientation of the traditional news broadcasts of the 50's and 60's -- back when people actually trusted the news."

Regarding FOX...... Their viewership have increased proportionate to the growing realization amongst everyday Americans that FOX's news programs offer much more complete and accurate factual content than do those of the more liberal-biased media. Americans dislike being lied to. And that is what the 'alphabet' news networks do, for the most part.

The thing that sets FOX's news programing apart from the rest of the media is that they present both sides of issues. Now I must admit that FOX's more liberal contingent have ticked me off to the point that I have switched them off on several occasions. But at least FOX presents the conservative side as well when it comes to news and current events. As for their other programing...... No better nor worse than the 'alphabet' stations in my view. Much of it 'dumbed down' and some of it pushing 'alternative lifestyles' and / or other liberal agenda our family do not subscribe to.

We are hoping FOX will pick up Lou Dobbs now that he is a free agent. He wasn't a good fit for CNN anyway...... Too honest and too willing to do thorough, investigative reporting critical of those in government who are screwing up, regardless of their political leanings or their party affiliations.

Three points......

"A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality."

* Cronkite was the typical left of center news commentator of his time and his commentaries aided the propaganda campaign waged by the left in their efforts to turn public opinion against the war in Viet Nam. Following our military withdrawal, Ho Chi Minh thanked Walter Cronkite, Jane Fonda and others publicly for their contribution to the communist takeover of Viet Nam.

"Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality."

* FOX is the most neutral of all the mass media in this country. That is the secret of their success. One would have to buy into the nonfactual left-biased media spin to have this perception.

Thanx for poll. Do you show sampling information as well. Hope you do. Number of people and their location are relevant factors. Not that I disagree that Fox, w/ its imperfections, is simply most objective, I like to cover all bases in this polls objectivity when using it in MY arguments against the "haters," you know?

Talk about bias when the CEO of Public Policy Polling make such a biased statement against Republicans or any party. Why should Americans trust any results put out when Mr Debnam is so outspokenly anti GOP. When was the last time you heard someone on FOX get a "thrill up their leg" like Chris Matthews or weep like Couric or Campbell Brown or rant like Olbermann? Oh right no bias on those outlets anymore than at PPP. Won't publish this?

It is true that a poll was taken a year after the Iraq war started (it was by PIPA, not by Pew). It is also true that the three questions in that poll were carefully engineered to illustrate leftist talking points, and that the criteria to assess "truth" or "falsehood" of a position were debatable along partisan lines.

The claim that Americans "believed Saddam Hussein was RESPONSIBLE for 9/11" is false; the question asked, not whether he was directly responsible, but whether he played a role. When they refined the question in later polls, it became clear that the public understood that Hussein had provided general support for al Qaeda, but was not directly involved in the 9/11 attack -- a position many well-informed analysts regard as not only true, but proved.

Thus, the claim Progressives make, that Fox has been "proved" to misinform its viewers, is nothing but a conceit. It's an assessment of one issue using three questions at one particular point in time, and it does not demonstrate even a significant instance of misinformation.

The previous post was a classic - "Fox has Marc Lamont Hill, Alan Colmes, Juan Williams, Bob Beckel and more..." Wow! So Fox gets a coupple of total chump strawmen liberals, and now they're fair and balanced? Yeah - Fox employs two of the main presidential candidates for the 2012 election, Palin and Huckabee, on staff...Bush's main advisor Karl Rove, Conservo-nuts Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, crazy Glenn Beck, a morning show that's basically built around making fun of liberals -- and this is your idea of fair and balanced. When you join the real world, let us know.

This should not be surprising, as Fox is the proud owner of the largest percentage of people who lack the ability to think critically. Blanket trust is a function of blanket distrust of alternatives, rather than the ability to rationally evaluate information based on a wider range of factors other than the source.

the problem is,...the news media has been left of center for so long that many except it as being normal news reporting, Fox is right of center which gives some assemblance of balance, from the like minded left leaning media.

first off, if you think any of the stations are neutral...you're delusional(they all operate for profit therefore they are inherently NOT neutral). Most (barring a few center-left primetime hosts on MSNBC) are on the centre-right of the overall politcal spectrum. That's a fact that most Fox Watchers don't seem to comprehend being far to the right(again I dont think its a bad thing I just think the truth should be recognized as is) On the overall scale of world politics, MSNBC is barely centre-left at times, let alone leftist. ABC, NBC, CNN, etc are all solidly centrist/centre-right in their orientation. This polling tells us a whole lot more about the scale of mainstream American politics (small and on the right) than it does about media outlets in general.

Now, I don't live in America so I don't have all the facts and am not going to wade into a debate over which of your news stations are biased and which aren't. All I'll say is that it seems that some people think the "alphabet" networks are liars and Fox is balanced while others say that Fox are liars and that the others tend to be unbiased. One thing is clear though, FOX news does something right. Whether it's being honest or good scaremongering is up for debate. The point is, they're popular for a reason. Other networks would be smart to figure out why that's the case.

The news media has been left of center for so long that it's being accepted as normal.Fox is right of center, and like it or not it does give some assemblance of balance to the left of center like minded news media.

This poll makes no sense. FOX News being the highest rated Cable News network gets no more than 3.5 may 4 million tv's at a time. Most people could care less about FOX News or any cable news outlet for that matter. Rupert Murdock knew was he was doing. He knew there was money to be made in partisan agenda news being disguised as "fair and balanced"...at the end of the day, most americans trust one news outlet: and that's ESPN News! This is a pop culture and sports country, not a partisan news outlet majority....The overwhelming majority of America never even heard of FOX News of MSNBC for that matter....

Guess what, there's no such thing as neutrality. Fox is consitently caught lying and using coded language. This is a country that is polarized right down the middle. People watch the programming that tells them what they want to hear. You are only kidding yourself if you think Fox is any more neutral than any other station. Just look at Fox's promotion of this supposed "journalsim" where two people posed as a pimp and a prostitute to entrap some Acorn workers and then extrapolate that everything Acorn does is bad and corrupt. Really they hate Acorn because the sign up poor and minority people to vote. Low voter turnout always favors Republicans.

I'd like to see a similar study done on factual information. What is the fact to opinion ratio in a 24 news cycle for these channels. I'm willing to bet that people trust networks that support their opinion, contrary to what actually is factual. Cognitive dissonance.

I think I get it. Fox News is most trusted because of its "LACK of neutrality". But isn't this the same crowd who hate and distrust the "mainstream media" because of their so-called "liberal BIAS"? This is the best example I've seen in a long time of "My mind's made up so don't confuse me with the facts"!

There is hardly any "news" programming on Fox, and they don't even bother to separate the opinion shows from the news. It's just right wing propaganda for a segment of the U.S. population that is eager to swallow it up.

This is sad stuff for the media in America. My take is that FOX succeeds mostly by being divisive, and I think this polling bears that out.

The mainstream networks are still stuck in the Cronkite era, trying to speak for and to all Americans. Of course they themselves are well-educated, East Coast liberals, and they think all Americans think like them, or should do. The genius of FOX was to realise that the liberal MSM has left a huge constituency - the conservative heartlands - unrepresented. Moreover, they have the field completely to themselves. Commercially it's been a masterstroke. Politically and culturally, I think it has deeply troubling implications for America's polity. It's not good that things have got so polarised. It's turning people off politics entirely, in their droves.

The role of the media in a democracy has long been understood as holding politicians to account, expressing the views of the populace, educating them, and forging a single political culture for the country. But FOX isn't interested in doing any of that. It's abandoned the media's traditional role and its traditional claim to speak for ALL Americans, in favour of preaching only to its home crowd. The liberal networks may have failed to do that traditional job too, but at least they were trying.

If you're not convinced, then put it this way. When was the last time you heard someone on the liberal networks describe republicans as "unAmerican"? FOX commentators make that assertion about liberals all the time. They are not interested in unity or balance. They are interested in splitting America down the middle and keeping it split, because that's what makes them money.

"It's like they are journalists first and Americans second. Not so with FOX." Posted earlier.

That is precisely the problem. A journalist should never be anything other than a journalist first. Journalism 101. Ideology and nationality should never trump reporting. They should not even be in the equation. The term "American" is very broad. That is one of the things that is great about our country, but it is also why any journalist who is American first on the job is biased and cannot be trusted as a journalist...liberal or conservative. I should not even have to say "Liberal or Conservative!"

I'm not at all surprised at this result, since neither PBS (the only true "fair and balanced" source of news reporting on TV) and Comedy Central (home of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart) weren't included among the possible responses.

PBS and Stewart are my primary sources of news on TV. It's been years since I've tuned into any of the other networks!

The same network that, without acknowledging it, copied a Senate Republican press release as a news graphic on Feb. 10, including the original typo?

The network that last November showed footage of the 9/12 tea party rally as if it had occurred during Michele Bachmann's less-well attended little "press conference"?

The one that pulled footage of large campaign crowds from 2008 to illustrate a less-well attended Sarah Palin booksigning last November?

The channel whose news producer was filmed whipping up a "spontaneous" tea party crowd for a news story?

The network that practically sponsored the tea party rallies, exaggerated crowd sizes beyond ridiculousness, and was the only one "trusted" enough to cover the upcoming tea party convention?

THOSE are the trustworthy, neutral guys? And these are just examples where they got caught in the last several months.

You can use Dan Rather or any number of other episodes or scandals to say other networks are biased, but let's not pretend Fox is some kind of professional journalism outlet.

Anybody can see who they are and what they do. They should just stop lying about it. It's not like they'll lose viewers if they tell the truth about themselves. It's a perfectly closed circuit: they tell their viewers what they want to hear, and their viewers refuse to listen to anything else.

There's something inherently fraudulent about this poll. Why does there have to be "a number one most trusted?" Who benefits? If you tallied up the total votes of those who prefer/trust ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and PBS, wouldn't those numbers easily trump Faux News? To paraphrase Lenin, "Fox News is the opium of the masses."

Fox seems trustworthy to people who know nothing of journalistic ethics and the world around them. Fox says what these people think, so they think it is fair and balanced, and it doesn't matter if none of it is grounded in fact.

Those of you who claim Fox is netral have been drinking too much of that network's Kool Aid. There is no objectivity among the "talent" who do nothing but cheerlead for the Republicans, promote tea parties and use innuendo to slander the Left. I agree with the poster who said that people trust the news organizations that reflect their own political bias. The reason why Fox is performing well is because frightened conservatives who feel their "entitlements" are slipping away only have Fox News to comfort them. The rest of us have a plethora of choices.

I've read another poll. It said a decade ago the nation average for IQ was 100, and now we are at 98. In 30 years, we will be at 89. 70 is the number for mentally retarded, so we are inching toward a special ed nation. Then Fox will be even more popular, along with right wing politics. How about survey people who are educated or have an IQ over 120 and see what news channels they watch.

I can't believe these numbers!!! It leaves me speechless. I think our media does us a disservice by not taking a mature approach to reporting the news. I honestly don't trust any of them even though I watch MSNBC because I tend to agree with them. But I still look at it as some what entertainment. I look to the Daily Show and Cobert Report for my news!!! Go Figure.

I would bet that the majority of Faux News viewers are religious and therefore able to suspend reality. It is not surprising that they can suspend reality when it comes to other things as well.

Just as Jerry Springer once ruled day time TV ratings, Faux News will find its niche of viewers as well. It is great to see the utter lack of logical thinking and the rants and raves from the uneducated.

What's the basis for the claim that "Viewers trust Fox precisely due to a lack of neutrality?" There appears to be no polling data to support this claim. Rather, it appears to be a cheap shot without any basis in data.

Fox News respresents all that is wrong in broadcasting today. Their people seem to be brainwashed and they are being paid big salaries to compensate for their loss of integrity.They will say anything that represents greed, nihilism, hypocriscy and bigotry.

Yeah Fox can be trusted to mislabel republicans as democrats if they get caught chasing after congressional pages, where diapers or leading in congressional races. If you decide to take a hike on the Appalachain trail all the way to Argentina you can trust Fox news to let the world know you are democrate. If there is a competent black man named Michael Brown who is a democrat you can trust Fox news will label him a republican. You can also trust Fox news to figure out 3. is four times the size of 2.9. Need I go on?

That poll had to have been taken by FOX News. They are the least trust worthy news on thr air. The are nothing more than a conservative propaganda station. There are intelligent people and those that watch FOX News.

Anyone who is serious about following the issues knows they need to get their news from as many different sources as possible and that you must be skeptical of all of them. If you blindly watch one network and believe nothing you hear elsewhere you are setting yourself up to be misled. Anyone who does this, regardless of their political views, is only interested in hearing opinions that support their ideology. All of these news agencies are run by corporations which have the primary goal of making money. They all design their news shows around covering stories that they think will get them the most viewers. The only thing that makes Fox any different is that they are deliberately targeting a conservative audience, and all this poll proves is that they are doing a very good job marketing to that specific audience. You can’t judge neutrality from a poll. You can only judge popularity.

I have no problem with Fox being the PR arm of the GOP (more accurately, wingnuts in the GOP). That is nothing new in journalism. Being partisan, being racist, being focused on one issue or a few, etc. is 200 years old! I just have a problem with the morons or liar that call Fox "neutral" or spout craziness that people "hate America." Come on, the Nazis did that, the radical Islamists do that. Try NOT to sound like them.

But I was wondering, how is "neutral" Fox covering the arrest of the wingnut who attacked ACORN for hacking a US senator's office (boy can't we use the PATRIOT act?)?

The most watched channel is Fox. The people who TRUST Fox is intellectually honest, fair, and balanced also constantly condemn the MSM. If Fox is as MSM as you can get, then they are willfully buying into a lie because Fox new's analysts analysis and narrative fits into the small-minded worldview of this audience and their tendency to distrust 'the other.' Glenn Beck is the epitome of this.

There are at least 3 things that call this study's conclusions into question:

1) 63% of those polled were OVER 46 years old!2) 74% of people polled were white.3) 86% of people polled did NOT identify as Liberals.

And you're surprised FOX gets the best numbers? Congratulations, your statistics mean absolutely nothing. Great job! Why dont you take your next poll in NYC and ask if the Yankees are going to win the series next year? It would be just as valid.

In 40 years the prime demographic for Faux/Fox News will be a MINORITY in this country. Their numbers will dwindle each decade. I gather a very big segment of this population gets most of their news from ONE source... FOX. Most "liberals" I know read at least 6 or more papers/blogs each day.. not to mention TV news....our sources of news/information is much more segmented. This is the reason FOX's numbers and influence are greatly exaggerated.

as another commenter posted earlier: almost 1/2 the country believes in CREATIONISM vs EVOLUTION. "Believing" it does NOT make it REAL folks!! In addition, this survey was deeply flawed to begin with!

Fox News fans would rather slit their own throats than dare to consider the possibility that there might be anything wrong with the Murdoch-Ailes brand.

Just as the Fox News viewer would assert that you cannot negotiate with terrorists because of their radicalization, one can counter-assert that you cannot reason with Fox News viewers because of their own personal brand of radicalization.

Thankfully, Fox News viewers have not embraced on any broad scale the tactics of al Qaeda or Sinn Fein. With any luck, Fox News viewers will never do so.

But to debate their radicalization or the Fox News impact on said radicalization is a waste of time.

Fox News is the only counterweight to the overwhelming liberal bias of 95% of the MSM. Can't we Conservatives have one outlet of our own without you rabbid Amaerica haters losing your minds? What's wrong with cheerleading for America? I kinda like the place, sorry most of you posters can't see it's beauty and broad shoulders as a good thing. I heard France is nice! Please consider it. No...seriously, please leave.

So just because someone does a poll we are supposed to believe it? Geez, there must be alot of FoxNews viewers in here. Maybe we ought to look at how the data was generated for a result such as this? "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Twain

Why the shyness? We all know that it is the aggregate White, Red-necked, poorly educated sector of our population that has bought--lock, stock and barrel--into the pablum that Fox calls impartial news-reporting. This "poll" on Fox should be completely ignored and discounted as meaningless drivel.

Haha! Good one wolfman.. Another thing to consider as far as neutrality is concerned, all the Fox defenders on here are talking about how FOX distrusts big government, and that is why America trusts them, how quickly you forget the unquestionable support FOX offered George Bush for 8 years, with his massive expansion in government, the highest deficit ever, unconstitutional expansion of executive power, and politicizing of the justice department... where was their distrust of big government then? It was non existent. Because the right was in power, and thats what FOX wanted. Neutrality Nothing!

Hey Brian, no one "hacked into" anything at a US Senator's office. If you read the affidavit and what was given by the cops on the scene, THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY WIRETAPPING EQUIPMENT ON THEM.

Innocent until proven guilty, and all that.

Or is that something you lefty loons only like to shout when the target in question is a pedophile?

As for Fox, we've already seen they're not afraid to ask the tough questions of the administration, unlike Helen Thomas and the rest of the water carriers. For anyone who doesn't know this, Fox was the first network to break with W's drunk driving ticket on the eve of the 2000 election. You'll see both Republicans and Democrats on Fox talking about issues, but on CNN you only see liberal Democrat . . . after liberal Democrat . . . after liberal Democrat.

And maybe that's why. People are sick and tired of the rest of the cable news stations sweeping anything that might harm their golden boy - who Chris Matthews said he was on a mission to portray in the best light possible - 's presidency under the rug.

Don't like the fact there's a news channel that doesn't regurgitate what you want to hear over and over, Brian?

Consier this: Most serious politicos are middle aged whites. Political junkies will find the source that feeds them what they consider to be the "truth". If Fox has an audience that is double the size of all the others combined, they must be selling the truth as the majority of Americans define it. Either that, or the majority of Americans are racist morons. Which do you choose to believe? MSNBC will have you believe MA voters are racist because they voted for a guy who isn't a Democrat and drives a pick-up truck. I'm really tired of being called stupid and racist.

By all means, go ahead and trust Fox news. What reason could we possibly have to distrust them? Just because they spliced together footage from two totally separate events to make it look like the 9/12 teabagger rally was far larger than it actually was? Bah. Who cares about the truth; reinforcing the viewer's predetermined beliefs and prejudices is far more important! And how is it that that Fox always seems to identify disgraced Republicans (e.g., Mark Foley, Mark Sanford, Larry Craig) as Democrats in their on-air graphics? Or post polls with mutually-exclusive options that add up to 126%?

Fox News is trusted, alright -- by those who want to be pandered to, and who have no use for anything even resembling an ATTEMPT at accuracy.

And I'm sure most Nazis trusted Hitler. The right is so brainwashed due to their inability to keep frail human emotions out of their politics. But since their politicians campaign and preach fear, it's somewhat understandable. Pathetic, but understandable.

People are going to trust a network like fox because they tell them what they want to hear. Look at the white, middle class, christian, suburbanites they are getting the shaft again. They echo peoples fears of the government and "liberal elites" trying to tell them what to do. If your whole way of looking at the world is based on your fears and insecurities then I could understand wanting to watch a channel that is going to tell you that the world is just how you see it and there is no other side to the argument. I would like to watch a news network that is unbiased but there really isn't such a thing anymore. So I watch and read and look online and search for differing opinions and try to find some truth and fact in it...isn't always easy.

I think the results are skewed by the fact that Republicans only trust one channel, and therefore only found that they had one legitimate answer to this poll. If you had lumped all the other channels together in a "Fox vs. Everyone Else" poll, I'd imagine the results would be close to 50-50. The country is middle-right? Really? The idealogical makeup of the branches of government suggests otherwise.

Congradulations...in a country where 35% of the population is over 45(US Census stats), you managed to get 63% in your survey. Let me guess, you contacted folks during the middle of the day by land-line? Try posting the same poll on your website. I bet the numbers skew the other direction towards CNN(or John Stewart if you add him).

People who think Fox News is unbiased are morons. All news is biased. When news stopped being a loss-leader to networks and turned to the profit-model, news lost all journalist integrity; not overnight mind you, but over time yes, and now its mostly a hopeless morally bankrupt institution making Americans dumber about the sphere on which we live in the process.

The right wing talking points espoused by the majority of Fox News contributors, is so far right they see the center-right "alphabet networks" as anti-American leftist pinko-commie propaganda machines, but they neglect the fact that most of what is said on Fox News is not news but opinion in the guise of news. Fox even won a lawsuit saying such. "In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.

Back in December of 1996, Jane Akre and her husband, Steve Wilson, were hired by FOX as a part of the Fox “Investigators” team at WTVT in Tampa Bay, Florida. In 1997 the team began work on a story about bovine growth hormone (BGH), a controversial substance manufactured by Monsanto Corporation. The couple produced a four-part series revealing that there were many health risks related to BGH and that Florida supermarket chains did little to avoid selling milk from cows treated with the hormone, despite assuring customers otherwise. "http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/11-the-media-can-legally-lie/

WAKE UP AMERICA!

I think I'm going to go watch Idiocracy, its a good satire movie that shows the future of America.

As an avowed liberal, I can understand why people perceive Fox as neutral... FOX has guts and it is not afraid to call out people with opposing views, and fight hard to make sure its point of view is heard. When are the other news outlets going to grow some? Sure, Olberman and others like to poke fun at Fox and the GOP, but they avoid aggressive, fact-based debate and enquiry. None of them are as effective as some of Jon Stewart's monologues. Most of the MSM outlets such as CBS, NBC, CNN look weak, are frightened of being labelled "elite" and appear to lack conviction, so is it any wonder that Fox is perceived as neutral by a majority of people. It is relentless in pursuing its version of the truth. CNN seems to have finally woken up and got more aggressive recently, about 6 years too late.

If you look at the polling data, the question about Fox News also showed the least number of people who "werent sure". So, when it comes to Fox News, more people are sure about whether or not they trust it. The others, NBC, ABC etc, all split the liberal demographic. So, I might say I trust NBC, but am not sure about ABC. Thus, the data is skewed and it compares apples to oranges.Once again, a poll that shows exactly what it intends to shows.

Ok lets see.. according to some (above) all outlets other than Fox are center left. Well besides the fact that most news sources (and Fox enterainement especially) don't report actual news most of the time and spend their time on balloon boy, Michael Jackson, and other frivolous non-stories, I would say that the poll is bunk. You might as well include Comedy Central's Daily Show and Colbert Report since they are more news than anything on the FOX, CNN, ABC,CBS, or NBC.

As for the "liberal slant" you love to complain about, CNBC has a far reaching right slant (as bad as anything from Fox Business on down) and the regular NBC is more neutral. So as far as trustworthiness you will see each of these having positive and negative influence on the overall trustworthiness depending on the political affiliation of the person surveyed.

Oh yeah and the "distrusting of big government claim" is BS. Fox loved big government when Bush was in control. We never heard anything from them on this issue until a Democrat took office.

Don't blame FOX. They only give give people what they want to hear. It is an "alternate reality." I don't blame the porn business for sticky hands. I don't blame politicians for pandering. I don't blame buffets for obesity. Look squarely in the mirrored glow of the television set. FOX is 'trusted' not because of accuracy or neutrality or others standards of excellence. It is trusted because, as a nation, we revel in unaccountable excess - sex, fear, rage, anger, entitlement, spectacle. Ailes knows what he's doing, in much the same way a drug dealer knows. We are crouching towards Babylon and, because of Ailes & Co., becoming ripe for oligarchy and facism. Remember, Hitler was elected. Oh, I forgot, FOX is bleaching our country of a capacity to learn hard truths.

I think the author misses the point. Presumably, people "trust" the media sources that they feel are telling the most honest and truthful information. Sometimes information, news, and facts, are not neutral, and will be biased in one direction or another. This study shows that those polled believe that FOX news sources (with a conservative bias) are giving the most truthful, and thus trustworthy, information. Conversely, those news sources that carry the liberal viewpoints or facts with more liberal bias were felt to be less honest by those polled. They are "listening to what they want to hear." And what they want to hear is Honesty, truth, and facts, regardless of the conclusion.

Fox Snews advertised for teabaggers and cheered when a republican won the Massachusetts election. How can any "sane" person believe they are balanced and neutral? Do you ever see them cheering when a dem wins an election? Do you ever see them advertising anti-war protests?

FOX News is a joke. You can't trust someone that is constantly trying to reassure you that they are trustworthy. which is exactly what FOX does - every minute they are trying to convince their viewers that they are honest. and of course the majority of Americans believe everything they see on TV... wake up America. Glenn Beck is worse for this country than any Taliban...

Among polls that release information about party identification, the overwhelming majority of them have larger Democratic advantages and most have smaller conservative advantages in their samples. Since we're talking about ideologically-driven news organizations (MSNBC, FOX, CNN, etc), don't you think that the higher number of conservative Republicans in your poll relative to most others is problematic for your conclusions?

Bottom line...older conservatives trust the "news" outlet that tells them what they want to hear. They listen to the likes of O'Reilly, Hannity and Beck because the validate their own bigoted, homophobic and xenophobic feelings.

A few nights ago I went to bed late on the West Coast. I caught the last 30 minutes of O'Reilly and an hour of Fox and Friends morning show. Every subject, every voice, was presented with a conservative slant, anti-liberal. Every single one. And it's the norm on Fox. So, am I crazy? How can something this obvious to me be seen the opposite way by a majority of others? Either I'm crazy or they are. OK, i'll take this poll as evidence that it's me. I'm checking out now. Good luck to you all.

Fox News is actually, legally, labelled as an entertainment channel. There are court papers available that says this. The reason it is classed as an entertainment channel rather than a news channel is because the majority of the time is taken up with opinions. Fox is biased and there are court papers to prove it.

You could be deaf and still realize that Fox News has a major slant. Objective journalism comes in only one flavor: facts. If you want commentary, that's not really news, but entertainment news (e.g., Hannity, Olbermann).

I'd bet my life savings that a majority of the people here ragging on liberals don't even know what separates liberals from conservatives anyway. (Hint: liberals want less government involvement in your personal life and more involvement in the economy. Conservatives feel the opposite.)

i do not trust ANY of the networks, they ALL have an agenda. you have to weigh the info and weight the source. duh! the fact the Fox Republican News watchers trust it more than any other proves that they have the audiance with the most morons.

FOX news is a joke. How anyone could watch that channel and their bunch of clowns is beyond me!. Lies! Twisted facts! Right wing cheerleading! Caricatures of new journalists! Slanderers! And CNN is taking a shot at it, too. Wolf Blitzer is becoming a total joke.If this country is turning into a bunch of FOX watching, tea partying, talking points repeating, selfish state; we're doomed.Neutrality? People who watch that station probably can't even spell it!

Faux News is by so biased that it has basically become the proaganda arm of the Republican party. MSNBC is the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. It's so obvious to anyone the watches with a critical eye that I am tempted to suggest that those who deny this are either willfully blind, or just too stupid to figure it out. Yeah stupid, I'm talking about you.

Anybody that wants the full picture should read (a lost art in our idiocratic society) several different sources. NY Times is center left, WSJ is center right, both are full of their fair share of BS, but neither willfully tries to obfuscate facts or mislead you like FOX or MSNBC. Between the two you'll have a pretty accurate picture.

The same people who watch Faux News and "trust" them are the same kind that "trusted" the Bush administration's lies about WMDs. It really is sad, that just because Faux News says they are "fair and balanced" people trust them on face value. Americans need to wake up and realize that your eyes cannot be opened with one news source. There are so many outlets to get the news, why would someone only rely on one?????

They back candidates...of only one of parties...they consistently mention the flaws of any Democratic president and willfully ignore all of the horrible stuff that Bush perpetrated...THIS IS NEUTRAL?THIS IS FAIR?THIS IS BALANCED?This is a LIE.

Let's not forget this was a computerized phone survey. People busy with their lives are likely to hang up when a computerized voice says Press 1,2 or 3. Only those with time to kill actually answered this survey -- making it utterly unscientific. What this tells me is that people who believe Fox news have more time on their hands than the average joe.

This poll shows how insane this country has become. There are websites that show how Fox News distorts facts over and over and time and time again, yet people trust them. This has to be the stupidest country in the world. All of the news organizations are right leaning, but Fox is basically the right wing Republican news broadcasting company. They must snicker to themselves every time they say fair and balanced. They probably sit around the lunchroom and laugh at how stupid people can be to believe they are even close to fair. But you can't tell that to all the brainwashed, redneck, uneducated fools that sit and watch Fox News all day and believe all the lies and distortions. They will swear by it, just showing that you can brainwash anyone with an IQ under 65 all day long.

It may have been said in the thread above, but Fox is at best a blithering entertainment outlet for yahoos who see terrorists and socialists behind every shadow. As far as sampling methodology goes, any chosen strategy is inherently influenced by both selection and response biases. 80% of statisticians know that. :-)

I will never trust Fox News. They're a joke. My friends and I were saying that as soon as a major media network has to paste "Fair and Balanced" right below their name, that's usually a good indicator that they're not.

It seems to me that the americans trust more the other metworks (ABC, NBC, CNN, etc) that Fox just because these networks share the same audience , Fox has it's own. An ABC viewer would watch NBC or CNN but probabably would not watch Fox and viceversa. Therefore Fox kas the first spot in this poll because they don't share their audience with other networks. And Yes, I do take my news mostly from Comendy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Jon and Stephen !!! YOU ROCK!!!

Folks, the fact that Fox is the most balanced news network is not new. Pew Research Center, the best non-partisan source for media research in the world, followed the news outlets through the '08 election and found that Fox had the most balanced coverage. The problem with liberals is that they think a conservative view is wrong because they have been brought up with left-leaning ABC/CBS/NBC and think that way automatically. Wake up and smell the truth, people.

What’s interesting is how the Elite Conservatives play the Elite Liberals card all the time. Fox News should really be called Fox News Entertainment. Is there news in there? Sure, but it always comes with an opinion. Yes, a shot at the “Liberal Elite”, democrats, non-whites, non-Christians, etc. are opinions and should not be part of a News program. Fox News is not there to assist the public in awareness of issues, they’re goal is to make a profit (which I’m for as a capitalist) which means they need to entertain and create passionate viewers. This can be seen with their interest and participation in the Tea Party which also included attacking some GOP. So, it’s not that they are always with the GOP. They’re intent is to focus on a market segment that can easily be swayed into a given opinion by playing to their fears and opinions. That’s not News, that’s good television! The problem is, it’s tearing our country apart while they make big bank. That’s where Fox News and the GOP have a common goal. Screw the people, but keep them voting and watching you to make the real Elite more money and power. BTW, it took many years of GOP control to put us in our current state of war, deficit, loss of jobs, and housing crisis. So let’s give the President and Congress some time to fix things.

There is a website called "Excellence in Journalism" a non-partisan group which reviews the reporting of the news and how journalistic standards are applied in all types of news. This is a link to a comparison of news reports by FOX news and MSNBC news during the 2008 presidential election. http://www.journalism.org/node/13436 You might find it interesting, unless you have a closed mind. It is also interesting to read how many people here clearly don't understand the vastly different concepts of 'news reporting' and opinion. The people like O'Reilly, Hannity and Matthews are visual media editorialists, they are paid to give you their opinion, they are not news reporters, they are commonly referred to as "Pundits". The people like Walter Cronkite, Jake Tapper, Katie Couric, and Shepherd Smith are supposed to be news reporters/anchors who uncover the facts, present both sides of the story and ask hard questions of the people involved in the news story. They should be truth seekers, no matter what results they uncover or who they offend. Which is also why they should be absolutely positive of their facts. Unlike the Pundits, who's opinions are what attract or repel an audience, you, as the news consumer, are not supposed to be able to determine the values, politics or biases of the reporters. This may impact your opinion of the polling done by PPP and your opinions of the various 'news' networks.

Ha, this comment stream is amazing. I'm a Republican and have witnessed, along with everyone else, the deterioration of news in general into this ridiculous partisan political ranting. Fox is pretty bad. I watch CNN, read Walstreet Journal and New York Times, and then make my own informed decision. Any of you voting for any one of these shows over the others are just being partisan hacks, this comment stream proves it. Fox, MSNBC and the networks are all ridiculously bad. Try to be independent folks. If you're sitting there only watching one navel gazing show, you aren't being informed. Branch out, and always challenge yourself. Never believe any of them until you have weighed the evidence. Everything is about politics now, our media has gone down the tubes. Call it what it is folks. If you want change in the US, stop feeding into the fire.

Amazing a station like Fox and only on the air since 1996 has become THE trusted news outlet. Funny that Fox News who incidentally is run under the tight control of Roger Ailes, the same Rodger Ailes who has been a GOP media consultant since his days with Richard Nixon. The guy has a great eye for spin and propaganda! I guess I would rather trust the real journalists at NBC, CBS, and ABC, stations who have been on the air for a combined total of almost 190 years!

Prove it. You hate Fox News and want them shut down? Prove they're lying. It won't be difficult for you. It's not unprecedented. Look to Dan Rather for guidance. Pick out a hot topic that you can't believe is true, research the facts on your own, and prove that Fox is lying about the facts they're reporting.

What you really show here is that conservatives overwhelmingly "believe" Fox and pretty much only Fox. I assume because Fox mirrors their ideology. Everyone else, liberals, moderates, African Americans, Hispanics, young, mid-aged, etc. rate others higher. Another odd thing is that the 2008 vote was 54/46. The survey has the McCain voters at 46% and Obama at 47% and 7% "can't remember". Something not quite right there. Finally the audience size for the major networks dwarfs Fox. You don't ask anything about how often, if ever, the respondents watch the news they are given an opinion about. How can you get an meaningful evaluation of their opinions without that info?

Looks like the crew from Daily Kos made it over en mass after posting these polling results on their site. Not surprisingly, they strongly disagree with the results. No matter what the truth of the results may or may not be, but then, they are 'smart' and the rest of the world, unless you agree with them of course, is stupid. So much for that vaunted 'open minded' liberal mindset. Just walk in lockstep with them, you need to know nothing more. And they accuse others of not thinking on their own.

we are with out a doubt the most half witted nation on the earth. it is truly scary if this "fox leads for trust" is even remotely true.america is coming to it's finish, we are top stupid to deserve this brilliant experiment. just don't have the depth, and brains.

This is a pretty amazing statement to read, considering how many times Fox has been caught substituting video, or misquoting people, or forgetting to fact-check, or misspelling.

Of course, polling results like this depend on which of the 30 people they interviewed, were chosen for the final tally. . . and which networks were left out of the poll. Comedy Central would have been at the top of my list for "trusted news".

I truly can't believe what I'm saying here. Look, my dad is an extreme right-wing conservative. He listens to nothing but Rush and Savage and watches nothing but FOX. But even he is not so deluded that he would claim that FOX is "nuetral." You can not be a serious adult with a working brain and say that FOX is not extremely biased. Look at their line-up of hosts: Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck, Greta -- where is the representative of the left.

Look, I'm not going to tell you what to watch. If you're comfortable being lied to, that's your right. But don't embarass yourself by saying that a network that gets caught in at least half a dozen lies a day, a network that has twice in the last two months been caught using the wrong footage to make right-wing events seem bigger -- a network that has identified the last 6 Republicans caught in sex scandals (Sanford, Ensign, Craig, etc.) as Democrats, a network that has posted 4 polls in the last two months that didn't even add up to 100% -- don't try to tell yourself that this is a neutral network.

FOX preys on ignorant, uninformed and gullible people who can't be bothered to do any research themselves. They could literally tell these people it was raining soup and they would invest in tin spoons. Truly hilarious.

It is wrong to call the news personalities journalists. They are far from it. Research will show that the liberal media is the big lie conservatives tell. They are all owned by wealthy conservatives pushing their own agenda. Have you noticed that a populist message by the new tea bagging Mass.senator is seen as a positive, but a populist message by the president is not according to 99% of TV media. The problem is most people don't recognize the truth of the double standard.

Although most of Fox's programs feature a conservative bias, it is also important to point out that they also frequently have far-left guests on their programs, more so than any of the moderately left "alphabet programs." Dennis Kucinich, for example, is frequently interviewed on Fox programs, where he is rarely featured on any of the more liberal media outlets.

ha-haseems like American people want false all over and idiots like palin to tell them news....that never happen.Great! Liar of the year - trusted news figure????Give me a break...Or...nation goes to hell

This poll is valid if you ignore reason, fact, and don't look at the actual data. There are two FATAL problems with the poll. I'm not interested in who is WORTHY of more trust, so I'll stick to the numbers.1. Sampling Error. The title should be "A disproportionately white and older population sample, 53 percent of whom did not even vote for the President who won in a landslide, with self-described "independents" constituting a percentage of the sample roughly four times as many as exist in the general population, trust Fox News by more than the rest of the population." The ONLY thing surprising is that a majority of old, white, non-Obama-voting respondents couldn't skew the numbers enough to get FOX to 50%!2. Refusal to Answer Problem. This is a BIG problem--so much so the poll even says that "...refusal to be interviewed...may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify." Those who respond to such polls tend to fall more into the "ax to grind" category, and NO ONE has more interest is professing their love of any news network and their hatred for all others as Fox viewers! Heck, liberals don't even particularly like CNN and ABC, which are seen as far too corporate-controlled (re conservative) for their taste.n But conservatives, to a man and woman, LOVE FOX News because it actually reflects their views. ONly MSNBC reflects a true liberal position (at least in the mind of liberals, which is what is important to the nature of this poll), and it really isn't a news network so much as it is a few liberal talking heads followed by what seems like 20 hours of "To Catch A Predator" reruns. FOX news is one-stop-shopping for Conservatives and Republicans, and does a great job of branding itself as such. (Incidentally, the more interesting poll was the one that found that Fox News viewers are five times more likely to believe that alien abductions have occurred than to believe in Evolution. Scary stuff.)

Just a few thoughts from a left-leaning moderate after delving into the particulars of the poll.

A cursory look inside the numbers reveals that, for a strong majority of Americans, the exact opposite is true. Indeed, the poll tells us quite a different story: for more than three-fifths of Americans, Fox News is the least trusted media outlet of them all.

And it's not even close.

Fox's pole position on the poll rests solely on one thing: the fact that conservatives are evidently petrified at the thought of having their worldview challenged in any way, shape or form. Therefore, they trust Fox. And only Fox.

Look at the very telling way in which conservatives responded on the issue of trust and American media outlets:

Generally speaking, liberals have more trust than mistrust of media outlets, but nowhere near the lopsided fealty that we see from conservatives. They also, not surprisingly, find Fox News to be the least trusted news source, and by a landslide.

But what about those prized moderates? How do they perceive the major media outlets? The results would certainly appear to fly in the face of the whole "Fox is the most trusted name in news" meme:

Let's be clear: with 61% of Americans (liberals made up 14% of the poll, and moderates made up 47%), Fox News is the least trusted name in news. And they are the least trusted outlet by a decisive margin.

This confirms something that bloggers on the left have been arguing for years. The success of Fox News is not due to their superior product, nor is it the result of providing a valuable service to a center-right nation.

It stems exclusively from the fact that liberals and moderates are willing to avail themselves of the entire array of media offerings available to them, while conservatives are so convinced of their own victim-hood on all matters media-related that they will pledge unwavering allegiance to a friendly media outlet.

As I scroll through the comments, I notice a glaring consistent theme from the side that dismisses this poll, which happens to have been conducted by a Democratic pollster and whose sampling happens to be a pretty fair one across the board.

The "'Faux' News"ers appear pretty skilled at name-calling, seriously. They're good at using whatever means to denigrate those that find most balance at Fox News. I don't recall reading anyone writing that Fox was perfect, but I did find that folks prefer news where a solid spokesperson from the Right AND Left are given ample opportunity to make his/her case. Frankly, I find conservatives are well ahead in debate POINTS. I suspect THAT is why Fox is "most trusted."

Again, I'd like to emphasize that much seething "hate" has been directed at Fox viewers, while not really substantively addressing the fundamental reason(s) for results of poll.

Notice much larger number of Independents that prefer Fox over rest, too. KEY factor! http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_126.pdf

Hope folks can stop hating so much and try sticking to supportable facts, which frankly, this poll starts to point to...

This whole poll is ignorant as previous polls show that not only is Jon Stewart more trusted than ANY "news" channel, but that the internet is WAY more trusted than anything on tv. Furthermore, since when does being "trusted" mean anything? Hitler had approval numbers that Fox would kill for... does that make Hitler awesome?

Oh my God Please. Does Fox news take us for complete morons? This so called poll was obviously conducted by Fox and only surveyed Fox news watchers. Talk about Bias!. Fox news could not be any more biased than they already are. I am not a Democrat. I am certainly not a Republican. I am an individual that refuses to be lumped in with any kind of group. Fox news is the home of the Republican party.

"Maybe it's not so much that people trust Fox because of its "lack of neutrality," but that they distrust the other networks because of their false claims of neutrality." - SS

Are you kidding? FNC claims to be "unbiased, balanced, and fair" far more than any other networks. Maybe this is something CNN should try! They are the only cable news channel that can rightfully claim this.

You have GOT to be kidding me. Fox News "Fair and Balanced" is a complete joke. An absurdity. They make political reporting into a complete farce. Anyone who believes Fox is unbiased is ignorant from watching too much Fox News-- totally proven by this article.

Fox knows their viewers are conservative republicans. They play completely to that demographic by feeding them twisted rhetoric about Obama. They do this to rally anger and hatred towards the administration to gain back power for republicans. Forget about actual facts. Its just "so and so is and evil demon and dangerous...!!!"

A complete FARCE.

If they weren't biased, would Beck have helped momentum for the teabaggers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y

It is likely the reason behind the poll's numbers has more to do with the tendencies of liberals and conservatives than anything else. Liberals do tend to be higher educated according to every poll ever done on the subject, and they tend to be younger. As such, they are less likely to access 1950s variety network news, or the 1990s variety cable news offerings. Liberals tend not to be "joiners," and don't identify with groups as much as conservatives. (Hence why only 14% of respondents say they were liberal, even though polls dealing with issues reveal that anywhere from 45-52% of Americans hold "liberal" positions.) Conservatives tend to be more group-thinkers, and accumulate around those who are like-minded. This explains their adherence to Fox News. Also, since it is the only right-wing news organization, the "trust" is not diluted among competing networks, as it is with NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN among moderates and liberals. In short, the poll reveals that even a more conservative, older, and white group of respondents than the general population don't consider Fox News to be the most trustworthy.

I keep seeing people defending the news portion of Fox. It would be interesting to know how many people actually watch the "news" portion of Fox. It seems to me that the opinion shows are on when the most people would be watching and the "news" when most of us are at work.

For everyone faulting the sampling as being biased, look at the only metric that counts. Ratings. FOX News programs are killing every other news program in the same time slots. The hosts on MSNBC are acting all smug now because they recently rose above CNN in ratings but that's not saying much. They are both still trailing far behind FOX. Nobody wants to hear the ravings of the lunatics on MSNBC like Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews. Beck, O'Reilly and Hannity must be doing something right to get the ratings that they do. With such high viewership, FOX can charge whatever they like for ad time and get it. MSNBC and CNN don't have that ability with their lousy ratings. If they can't charge premium pricing for ads, it's only a matter of time before they go the way of Air America.